The Wizard's Apprentice (Playdate)
A downloadable game
The Wizard's Apprentice is a trading game inspired by classic games like Trade Wars, Drugwars, and Dope Wars, but with a more family-friendly theme.
Buy low and sell high in the fantasy lands of Helios in order to pay off your student debt as a Wizard's apprentice. You have 30 days to to earn as much gold as you can by trading in Potions. What will your high score be?
Local highscore records are saved to your game data.
Rules of the game:
- Press B to toggle your Bag of Potions. You may hold up to 4 different types of Potions, but there's no limit to how many each.
- Each time you move to a new location or city, time will advance by 1 day and Potion prices will fluctuate.
- When you move to a new location or city, there's a chance that a Potion type will be in abundance or in demand for one day. If you are lucky, it may be just what you need.
- As you travel, there's a chance the Royal Guard may catch up to you and make you pay a fine for holding contraband. You can choose to fight or flee, to see if you gain a bag of gold or escape.
- Visit the capitol Helios to pay off all or a portion of your student debt. Interest will accumulate every day on the remaining balance.
- Visit the Mage Guild to study spells--for a fee. If your spells are powerful enough, you may be able to defeat the Royal Guards in a fight and seize any gold they may have.
How to play?
There are two ways you can play The Wizard's Apprentice.
- You can sideload it to your Panic Playdate handheld console. Instructions can be found here: https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/
- Or you can download it to your PC/Mac and play it in the Playdate Simulator. The Playdate Simulator is included in the free Playdate SDK. Link to SDK: https://play.date/dev/
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $1 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Emperor of Helios SaleAug 05, 2022
- v1.01 UpdateJul 18, 2022
Comments
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Is there a limit to the number of spells you can study? I bought 42 spells and gave up trying to find the limit
I think I capped it at 99, which is an unrealistic limit with very little gain 😄
I was experimenting with a more realistic experience where I never pay off the loans and instead pursue a post-graduate degree.
What was your potion thesis about?
I was, apparently, unable to keep any of the test subjects alive
I came here, hoping to find a drug war type game. Just knew it was gonna be a perfect fit for this device, I think a 60 and 90 day option would be cool too.
Excellent game. I'm pretty bad at it so far, but it has a really satisfying gameplay loop and I can't wait to figure it out and finally beat it.
Thanks!
Just pay attention to the prices. They have a fixed range for each potion.
Deceptively simple and fun game. It's made me wonder if arbitrage is an under-exploited game mechanic.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
"Enjoyed" is an understatement. After a week with a PlayDate in my hands, it's my most-played game by a factor of at least 5.
This comment sold the game to me
Always loved this kind of game, excited to see one on the Playdate
Thanks! I felt the same way. Haha.
Jongjungbu has done it again... Phenomenal game here, insane replay value. Games can be as long or as short as you make them, easy to understand. I can't wait to see what you come up with next! Thanks for the hours of entertainment!
Thank you so much, TMAT! :D
I'm in!
Enjoy!